[vicsireland] Re: Vics training day
- From: "Flor Lynch" <florlync@xxxxxx>
- To: <vicsireland@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 16 Oct 2006 13:01:17 +0100
Hi Karen,
I don't agree that Firefox is 'much superior' to IE, unless one is having
problems with IE. It is often faster at loading, but much depends on what your
home page is. It is smaller, less bloat. But it does sometimes crash,
unfortunately. JAWS works well enough with Firefox; but not as well as it does
with IE.
----- Original Message -----
From: Karen Ashe
To: vicsireland@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Monday, October 16, 2006 10:50 AM
Subject: [vicsireland] Re: Vics training day
Hi Flor
To be honest I don't use Jaws, so had only heard second-hand that it was
compatible with Firefox and Thunderbird. Certainly, though, the page I cited
at the bottom of my last email did confirm some difficulties in terms of
compatibility. Something for programmers - hopefully at both companies? - to
work on, I hope, since Firefox is much superior to IE (certainly, much superior
to IE6 and below - and IE7 is just a rip-off of Firefox!) and it would be a
shame if it wasn't accessible to Jaws users.
Best
Karen
On 16/10/06, Flor Lynch <florlync@xxxxxx> wrote:
Hi Karen,
have you found thurnderbird able to work with JAWS7 and above? JAWS' main
competition, Windoweyes, works much better with Firefox than JAWS; and even
Eric Damery of FS isn't too happy with Firefox' performance with JAWS in the
upcoming (soon to be released) version 8 of JAWS.
----- Original Message -----
From: Karen Ashe
To: vicsireland@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Monday, October 16, 2006 10:22 AM
Subject: [vicsireland] Re: Vics training day
Hi Sean
What email client are you using to receive your emails? When I used
webmail alone, I had to change my address several times, as then the spam
fighters were rather poor. Now I use Outlook Express on my desktop PC and
Thunderbird on the laptop. If you use Outlook or Outlook Express, you can
download a plug-in called SpamFighter at www.spamfighter.com. It wasn't as
straightforward to download in my case as I'd like, but does seem to
effectively recognise spam. There's a 'blacklist' for specific email addresses
(as well as a 'whitelist' to make 100% sure mail from your
friends/newsletters/whatever gets through) and a 'blocking' feature, which
actually blocks the content of the email (not only to you but to everyone who
uses the program) which is more effective since of course spammers use a
multitude of different addresses. The instructions about how to use all the
program's features are offered to you at installation, and are available at any
time on the website. Apparently you should keep an eye on the Spam folder the
program creates for about a month after you install it, as an odd piece of
legitimate marketing email for which you have signed up may end up there; you
can then tell SpamFighter to allow this. Also, if a piece of spam gets through
to your inbox, you can tell it to filter this to spam. In other words, it
learns what's legitimate and what's not.
The above is a bit like marketing for that product! Sorry, I do tend to
go on about things, but just want to give a full picture. So far I've found
SpamFighter quite an effective too, and I like the fact that as soon as any
user blocks an email, no one who uses it will get that same email. Anyway the
full version of the program is available for a 30 day trial. If you want to
keep SpamFighter after that you can get the free version (or you can pay for
the full version, but I don't think there's enough extra features to justify
the cost).
As far as Thunderbird goes, it has a built-in anti-spam tool, which I
have also found rather quite effective. It too 'learns' what is spam and what
is not; all you have to do is hit a button on the toolbar. By default, what
Thunderbird considers spam is marked as spam, but annoyingly is not filtered to
the 'Junk E-mail' folder. This is easily rectified by going to the Tools menu
and selecting 'Junk Email Controls...' from which you can select the settings
appropriate to you. You can even start a spam log if you want to keep track of
how much you're getting. Of course, check the spam folder until you're
confident that no legitimate email is getting through - if welcome email is
classified as 'Junk', the 'Junk' button on the toolbar becomes 'Not Junk' and
you simply click that to tell Thunderbird, and it will be safe from now on.
Thunderbird is Mozilla's version of Outlook Express, and in many ways
bears a striking resemblence to that program. I find OE slightly easier to use
to be honest, but I like supporting shareware products and not market
monopolies when I can ;-) You can get Thunderbird from
www.mozilla.com/thunderbird . Whilst on that subject, Mozilla's web browser,
Firefox, is - for those who don't already use it - much better that Internet
Explorer, and I really recommend that anyone who doesn't have it gets it! Both
programs are compatible with Jaws 7.0 and above, though I understand that there
are a few teething problems (see
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Assistive_technology_compatibility ).
There are other anti-spam tools of course, not that I know anything about
their usage though. Have a look at
http://email.about.com/cs/winspamreviews/tp/free_spam.htm for reviews of ten
free programs. The first one, POPFile, sounds quite good as it filters the
spam at the POP stage before it gets to your email client (if I'm reading that
correctly), though the negative side is that it's a uses a wee bit too much CPU
power.
OK, I have gone on for far too long as I always tend to, but hopefully
there's something vaguely helpful somewhere in the above mire of words. Good
luck with cutting down on the spam however you proceed.
Best
K
On 12/10/06, Sean Loftus <seanlofty@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Tony:
I enjoyed those, too, and look forward to an early repeat performance.
In the meantime, can anyone on the list recommend a simple, effective
method
of dealing with the large amount of spam and junk E-mail which I have
been
receiving recently?
I know of one individual who felt it necessary to change his E-mail
address
because of this.
Does the treatment really have to be so drastic?
Sean.
----- Original Message -----
>From: Tony Murray <tony.g.murray@xxxxxx>
To: < vicsireland@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, October 11, 2006 3:47 PM
Subject: [vicsireland] Re: Vics training day
> Hi Sean,
>
> I'm so glad you found the day useful, and thanks for your support.
>
> You are right. It is a great tribute to VICS, the fact that some of
our
> members came along and gave up their free time to make this possible.
>
> Everything VICS does is based on voluntary work on the part of those
> involved. It just proves to me that others are as passionate about
this
> organisation as I am. For that reason, I love to see an event like
last
> Saturday's training day pay off.
>
> Seeing people gaining knowledge, having a good time, and becoming
more and
> more confident in the use of their technology is payment enough in my
> opinion. I get a great sense of personal satisfaction, knowing that
the
> things I do as Chair of VICS, works to empower my fellow Blind and
Visually
> Impaired people in the field of technology. I have an excellent
Committee
> around me, and their enthusiasm and drive allows us to work well for
our
> members.
>
> So, roll on November 18th in Galway!
>
> It was great catching up with you afterwards Sean for a few cold ones
too,
> we must do it again sometime soon.
>
> Take care,
>
> Tony
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Sean Loftus" < seanlofty@xxxxxxxxxx >
> To: <Vicsireland@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Wednesday, October 11, 2006 2:54 PM
> Subject: [vicsireland] Vics training day
>
>
> Dear all,
> Thanks to everyone involved in planning and carrying out last
Saturday's
> Vics training day. I am in full agreement with my fellow participants
that
> the day was an enormous success. It is a great tribute to Vics that
members
> of the committee willingly gave up a Saturday to provide this
instruction
> for us. The material handed out at the conclusion of the day's
activities
on
> c D, braille and other desired formats will certainly keep me
occupied for
> some time to come.
> I would urge any Vics members with a wish to improve their computer
skills
> to watch out for future announcements concerning training days and
sign
up.
> Well done Vics committee.
> Sean Loftus.
>
>
>
>
>
****************************************************************************
****
> This document is strictly confidential and is intended for use by
> the addressee unless otherwise indicated.
>
> This email has been scanned by an external Email Security System.
>
> Allied Irish Banks
>
****************************************************************************
****
>
>
>
Other related posts:
